Sugar Cookies

My friend Mel suggested we make sugar cookies for Valentines to give away. She wanted to try different recipes to see which ones we liked the best. Mel did two recipes and I did two. Both of us picked a recipe that included cream cheese. She also had one that had sour cream and I had another recipe that didn't include chilling.

The consensus was that neither of us were too impressed with the cream cheese recipes. This really surprised us. Usually anything with cream cheese added is better. We found that the dough didn't really taste much different then the ones without cream cheese. As the cream cheese makes the recipe more expensive to make, it made it seem not worth while to use it. Also the cookie dough was harder to manipulate, at least the recipe I used was, and the cookies really didn't rise at all.
I haven't gotten the sour cream recipe from Mel yet, but I will give you the one I used.

Roll Out Cookies

1 c unsalted butter (I used margarine) softened
1 1/2 cups granulated (white) sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract and 1/2 tsp almond extract (I didn't have almond extract so I just used 2 tsp vanilla)
2 3/4 c all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 400 f
In a mixer bowl, cream butter with sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and extracts. Mix flour, baking powder and salt; add to butter mixture 1 cup at a time, mixing after each addition. DO NOT CHILL DOUGH. divide dough into 2 balls. On a floured surface, roll each ball into a circle approximately 12 inches diameter and 1/8 inch thick. Dip cutter in flour before each use. Bake cookies on ungreased cookie sheet 6-7 minutes or until cookies are lightly browned.
makes about 2 doz cookies.

I iced with Classic Butter Icing.

Classic Butter Icing:
Cream 1/2 c soft butter with 2 cups icing sugar.
Beat 2 tsp vanilla, 2 tbs milk and icing sugar into mixture.
Gradually add 1-2 tbsp milk into icing until smooth and of desired spreading consistency.
I placed icing into Ziploc bags with a small hole cut on one of the corners to make decorations and words on the cookies after spreading cookies with a base coat of icing.





My Husband and I had our Valentines meal on Sat. This was my table setting:


I got the valentine crackers from the Dollarama as well as the little pink takeout boxes. The pink glasses we got as a wedding present.
Twas all that yummy and good:)
Have a very Happy Valentines Day:)

Vanilla Truffles

Basically this is the same as the Oreo truffles. I just substituted Vanilla cookies with vanilla centres.
1 pkg (8 0z) cream cheese, softened
4 c finely crushed Vanilla cookies
White and milk chocolate melts melted by package instructions.
lollipop sticks
Mix cream cheese and cookies until well blended
roll into balls or press into silicon ice cube trays that have fun shapes. Mine happened to be hearts. Freeze until firm.
Dip end of lollipop stick into melted chocolate and press into truffle.
dip truffle into melted chocolate and tap gently to remove excess chocolate.
place onto wax paper or stand in Styrofoam until hardened.

I placed melted chocolate into a Ziploc bag, cut a small hole into the corner then drizzles or drew decorations onto the cookie pops.
I found that the white chocolate went best with the vanilla but my husband liked both equally.






Don't they look awesome?
Ta

Crescents deli chicken and BBQ roll ups

An actual food entry! Shocker I know!
These are really simple and easy to do. All you need is:
Pillsbury crescent rolls
BBQ sauce
deli chicken (I halved the slices using 1/2 slice each)
cheese (I used cheddar. Mozzarella would have worked really well too)





Carefully unroll and separate crescents. Put BBQ sauce on first, then chicken then cheese. Roll up and carefully move to pan. I put parchment paper on the cookie pan first. Cook according to instructions adding about 5 min extra to make up for all the added filling. These taste best fresh. These freeze really well and are great for quick snacks
Gwen

Some more Love'n Crafts

I was at the Dollerama and came across these wood word cutouts. They were a dollar each which I thought was a screaming deal. I got LOVE and XOXO. They also had LOVEYOU and KISSME but as I'm on a crafting budget so I only got two. I did them while I was at my friend Mel's place so I don't have any "before" pictures as I forgot to take my Camera or get pictures before I left. I just took pictures of the backs so you can get an idea of what they looked like before I started.



I bought a Valentine's pack of paper from Michael's. I traced the letters onto the papers, cut and made adjustments. I then mod podged the paper onto the letters. After they were dried I mod podged the top of the papers. I really liked how they turned out.


This is a wooden plaque I bought from the Dollerama as well. I gave it a white paint base coat. When it was dried I put masking tape on it. I then painted the edges red and the middle pink using acrylic paints I had bought back in December from Michael's. Although I love what I have seen in blogger land that people have done with vinyl, I don't have any vinyl. I used letter stickers I bought from The Dollar Giant. I really like how this turned out.


Ta!
Gwen

Getting the itch for Valentines Day crafts

It may sound silly but it took me probably about an hour to go through all my papers and come down to the four papers I used for this craft.

This frame was given to me for either a Christmas or year end gift from one of my kidlets from my 15 years as a pre-school teacher.Sad to say I can't remember who gave it to me, but I have kept it all this time because I liked the frame.

I measured the pictures that came with the frame and cut my paper to size. On each side I taped the 2 papers so they would fit the frame and not slide out of place. I hot glued the letters to the papers. These are letters I got from the Dollar Giant and are from the same set I used to spell JOY on the plates I did for Christmas.





When I showed my husband my finished product he teased me that I should do a multi-frame of Supercalafragilisticgesbyalidocious, not to mis-spell it,(which I probably already have and I apologize)and every letter had to have a different background, and that I only had an hour for completion. "Ha!ha!" I said!

Maybe I should do it for his birthday or something....hmmm... could be humorous to see his reaction if I actually did it.:)

Winter Dreams

I actually did this in October.

I got the wood plaque from the Dollerama. I gave it a base coat of white. I then took the paper I wanted to use and place it over the plaque and rubbed my finger over the edge so that it would mark the paper so I had the correct shape then cut the paper with scissors.

I used modpodge to attach the paper and modpodged over top of the paper. The letters are stickers i got from a sticker book I bought, again from the Dollerama. I really like how it turned out.:)

Christmas advent

I had a lot of fun doing this. I bought the advent at half price from Micheal's only a few days before Christmas. I painted the front with acrylic paints( I still need to give Rudolf eyes and a mouth) and used modpodge and Christmas scrapbook paper to decorate the drawers.
I cut measured the drawers, cut the paper just slightly smaller. I drew an x on the back so I knew where the middle was. I punched a hole with a hole punch on the middle. I cut from the bottom of the paper to the hole so I could get the paper around the wooden knob on the drawer. I mode podged the drawer, placed the paper on and modpodged the top.

I really like how the advent turned out:)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!:)

Things have been a little crazy with the Christmas season. I have been enjoying the last week having my stepson come to visit, having my husband home the few days he got off, so I haven't taken time to post here.

I have done a few fun things over the last few weeks that I haven't got posted here yet. I will be putting them up in the next week.

Have a fabulous New Year and see you in a few days:

Gwen